The report from the Privileges Committee on three absent members of Parliament may now be presented and considered in the House, according to Speaker of the House Alban Bagbin.
On Wednesday, October 26, 2022, Mr. Bagbin rejected requests that the Speaker proclaim some of the seats vacant before a formal discussion of the Privileges Committee's report has taken place.
The preliminary objection to the report's admissibility is accordingly dismissed in limine, the Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin ruled.
Kennedy Agyapong, MP for Assin Central, Henry Quartey, MP for Ayawaso West, and Adwoa Safo, MP for Dome Kwabenya, were reported to the Privileges Committee for being away from the House of Representatives for longer than allowed without a valid excuse.
Adwoa Safo ignored the summons while Kennedy Agyapong and Henry Quartey went before the committee and claimed their absence was due to illness.
She explained her extended absence from Parliament as being caused by family concerns, citing her ill son as one among them.
As Minister of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, she was just fired by the President.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, had urged, among other things, that the Privileges Committee's report should not be up for discussion in the House before to the Parliament's break in July 2022.
The Speaker of Parliament, however, declined this request.
The decision, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu fiercely objected, is detrimental to parliamentary activity.
"I vehemently disagree with the decision. I must convey how uncomfortable I am with this awful decision because it is so incongruous with the constitution. Right after the decision, Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu remarked on the floor, "We will return with a meaningful motion to contest the judgement."